Mrs. Baker’s Cadillac

Julia Baker’s House with Cadillac out Front

“WINDHAM. FEBRUARY 12, 1915—Mrs. Julia M. Baker has a new seven passenger Cadillac.” W.S. Harris, Exeter Newsletter. The Cadillac open tourer for seven passengers was a popular model with large families and in 1914-15 would have set back Mrs. Baker $2075. She could well afford it since she was the proprietor of the popular Baker’s Grove on Cobbett’s Pond. This rather interesting photograph of Mrs. Baker’s home, on Range Road in Windham, shows the Cadillac parked in the drive, in front of the abandoned horse buggy. It must have been a thrill, tinged with a little bit of melancholy, to trade your horse in for a car.

Baker’s Grove on Cobbett’s Pond, Windham NH

“In 1914, Cadillac became the first manufacturer to mass produce V-8-powered automobiles. The compact design of the Cadillac V-8 enabled the overall frame length to be shortened by 10 or more inches, making the car more sturdy and easier to handle. Cadillac raised the bar for performance with the industry’s first V-type, water-cooled eight-cylinder engine. This 314 cubic inch engine produced 70 horsepower at 2,400 RPM and was the industry’s first major step in development of high-speed, high-compression engines. The following year, it was made standard on all Cadillac models.”